Graduate School Things

• What year?
• Who is thinking about going to Graduate School?
• Who wants to go to Graduate School?
• Who is absolutely sure they want to go to Graduate School

• Tell you a bit about my experience with Graduate School
• Give you the career perspective of Graduate School
• Some parting wisdom and unsolicited advice

• Wikimedia Foundation
• UC Davis School of Medicine
• Private tutoring

Goals:

• Apply for graduate school (again)
• Gain (more) experience in medical research
• Gain (more) experience in statistics research

Academia as a career:

• Intellectual freedom
• Answering tough questions (in statistics)
• Statistics as a service
  • Helping other researchers answer their own tough questions
• I've learned to enjoy the writing process
  • I used to hate it

• Things don't always work the first time around
• Know why you want to do graduate school
  • Undergraduate research is a great way to find out
  • This does not mean you must know exactly what you want to do
  • You'll get the freedom to figure out exactly what later
• It's okay to take time off (for work, etc) before graduate school
• Think about graduate school as a job
• Build and keep relationships with Advisers
• Apply for Fellowships
  • Many positive side-effects (freedom, stability, etc.)

• What are some fears you had about applying?
• How important is it to have a good relationship with faculty now?
• When can I apply for Fellowships?
• If I get a fellowship, are there strings attached?
• Do they have free pizza in graduate school?
• How expensive is it to go to graduate school?
• Should I consider the opportunity cost?
• What is statistics research? What do you do?